The Very Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, dean and president of Episcopal Divinity School, and Mally Lloyd, canon to the Ordinary, married on Saturday at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Boston in front of nearly 400 guests. The Rt. Rev. M. Thomas Shaw, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, solemnized the marriage.
For orthodox Anglicans, the lesbian union was another act of defiance.
“This is another action of reckless disregard for the life of the Anglican Communion and the authority of the Bible by The Episcopal Church,” the Rt. Rev. David C. Anderson, president and CEO of the American Anglican Council, told The Christian Post. “They continue to ignore the Communion’s pleas for restraint and continue to go their own way.”
“They continue to ignore the Communion’s pleas for restraint and continue to go their own way.”
Well why not? The ABC and the AC will not do anything.
I would keep my distance from St.Paul’s Cathedral Boston. . . for fear that the earth might open and swallow it up.
Know that not everyone who is doomed to live in Massachusetts regards these events with joy.
“Jesus wept” comes to mind.
“The blessing of same-sex unions within The Episcopal Church is nothing new and such actions have drawn rebuke from the wider Anglican Communion…”
Arbitrarily calling these “unions” Christian marriage is new. And now they’re out, proud, and in your face.
And a civil union or civil “marriage” does not automatically entitle any of us to the Christian sacrament of marriage. And who gets to define “generous pastoral response”? I’d bet if a DioMass clergyperson defined “generous pastoral response” in a situation like this as a referral to Fr. Mario Bergner’s ministry, Shaw would have a fit.
#5 wrote: [blockquote] I’d bet if a DioMass clergyperson defined “generous pastoral response†in a situation like this as a referral to Fr. Mario Bergner’s ministry, Shaw would have a fit. [/blockquote]
No doubt you are right. However in this diocese (South Carolina), I am guessing (as I am not clergy) but reasonably certain that a “generous pastoral response” would not include a “wedding”. I certainly know clergy whose idea of a generous pastoral response might just include a referral to Fr. Mario Bergner’s ministry of healing. That would indeed be the most generous pastoral response possible IMHO.
God will not reward an organization and a pair of His children for their intentional unrepentant, and brazen disregard for His Holy Word. May all of their eyes be opened to the error of their ways.
#6, just so you know, if a referral to Fr. Bergner’s ministry were made as part of a “generous pastoral response”, it wouldn’t be two minutes before the referring priest was labeled a “bigot” in that particular diocese.
As parents we also all know that sometimes the “generous pastoral response” to our children is the word “no”.
It’s also true that, in the Episcopal Church, the priests retain the right to refuse ANY wedding. In nearly 14 years of ministry, I know my priest has refused at least one(I’m speaking of boy-girl situations); and, based on the dynamics in that relationship(well-known to some in that parish), “no” WAS the best pastoral response.
Is this the first union of two same-sex members of the clergy, or just the first for this diocese? I tried google and failed.
Like the Philadelphia Eleven but without any penalty for breaking the current rule. It seems foregone that the Episcopalians will vote for gay marriage at their next convention. I defend all faiths’ right to govern themselves.
They may have the right, #10,” but can they call themselves Christian?
Larry
As long as they require, on paper, the content of the creeds, yes.